


Pyre

by ArcanisRune



Category: Final Fantasy X
Genre: Esther actually fights now, Gen, Rewrite, basically Pyre with a new coat of paint, but not actually, crossposted, except seymour bc fuck seymour, i added everyone so i wouldn't forget later, i like isekai fics don't sue me, rewriting old fics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:31:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25340167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcanisRune/pseuds/ArcanisRune
Summary: When you're summoned to Spira, there's a storyline already in place.But what chaos will a new character cause?
Kudos: 2





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so fresh coat of paint since I got FFX/X-2 HD Remaster on Steam (thanks to my friend!)
> 
> I took a few cues from the game, but also updated some things. If you desperately need a voice for Esther, it's Erica Mendez (Raphtalia voice).

_I'm not your most ordinary girl._

_I'm not the hero of this tale._

_But still..._

_Will you listen to this story I have to tell?_

* * *

_**Pyre: Summoner's Tales** _

_**o1. Prologue** _

The tree branch was strong, and she held up an orb to the sun in the sky. It reflected like prisms, shining and changing colours. Putting it back away, the black-haired girl slipped from the branch upon hearing a voice calling for her: her mother. Making her way down the tree, twigs and leaves got stuck to her hair in typical fashion. She headed back to the house, an old 3-bedroom that had been modernized a few years ago, and opened the sliding door to enter in. Closing it before a snow white cat could make her escape, she smiled widely at her mother who sighed and started pulling out the twigs and leaves.

"Will you ever stop climbing the trees, Esther?" She asked. Esther shook her head.

"Mmm, nope!" Esther replied, the same smile on her face. "After all, there's no war in Ba Sing Se~"

There was no response to that. Her mother just shook her head a little and went back to cooking after that. Esther pet the snow white cat for a few moments before heading into the living room and grabbing a book. It was one of her favourites: about a witch who fell in love with a non-Twilight vampire. It took her a few moments to get to her room and flop on her bed, turning over to open the book and read it. Instead of the usual opening, where the witch first met the vampire, she was met with a different passage.

You can read this, right?

I don't understand the lettering of this world. It's all... confusing.

I need your help.

There's a story out there that needs to be told.

And you can help it come true.

What?

That made her even more confused. Sighing and shutting the book, she tossed it aside and stared at the ceiling. Her help? She was just a normal teenage girl! There was nothing she could do to help, really. Except maybe screw everything up- That was normal for her to do, wasn't it? Esther put an arm over her eyes.

* * *

_I thought about a lot of things._

_Like how my twin sister got into an accident, how my parents divorced and separated us, how badly I was bullied in school and always called a racial slur. Everything was somehow my fault, even though a lot of people told me it wasn't._

_So that message asking for help? I didn't know how to respond at the time._

_Maybe it was a sign, or maybe it was just my imagination._

_But I don't know how to explain what happened next, honestly._

_You know the feeling when you wake up from a coma extremely disoriented? And you were sure you'd been somewhere else? And then seeing a nurse exclaiming you're awake and running off? No memory of how or when you got there?_

_It's kind of like that._

_Disorienting._

* * *

The stone floor was hell on her back.

The air around her was cold.

Esther slowly slid her arm off her face and opened her eyes. The area was different from her bedroom, and she was certain she'd been in bed. Perhaps she'd fallen asleep and hallucinated, but she didn't think so. Rubbing her eyes and slapping her face with both hands, a typical anime move she had made a habit, she stood up and looked around. It seemed... familiar, but she couldn't remember from _where_. As she tried to figure it out, she felt a rumbling and immediately knelt down while covering her head and neck as best as she could. It didn't last long, and nothing fell around her. She didn't trust it, though, and felt another rumble a few moments later. That one was soon accompanied by a louder one that echoed throughout the chamber as she heard actual _rocks_ falling nearby. Once it was over, she got out of her safety position and looked around. This... wasn't what she had expected at all. As she looked, she noticed a bit of the actual _building_ had come down and someone was pushing it out of the way. He looked cold, and his features were familiar.

But where had she seen him before?

It didn't matter. The two of them were here, so they had to work together.

"Another person?" He looked over her.

* * *

_Why are you looking at me like that, I thought._

_I don't know why he looked at me like I would disappear at any second._

_I guess... he just didn't have anyone with him._

* * *

"What? Is there something on my face?" Esther asked, pale yellow eyes glancing him over. "Do you know what caused the crashing earlier? It was kind of crazy."

"Y-yeah... but first." He rubbed his arms. "We... need to make a fire. It's so cold here."

Blinking, Esther looked at him funny before snapping her fingers. "Right. Fire. Which means... Firewood! …..Which we can't get here and- oh no, we're trapped without fire, aren't we?"

If they could find firewood, they could make fire- but that was going to be hard to do. It wasn't usual for Esther to go out camping, and she usually had her lighter on her- that's right, the lighter! Pulling it out of her pocket, she opened the top and lit it, hearing the familiar snap and seeing the flame pop up. "I have this in case we can find some-"

"It's over there!" The teen pointed behind her, and Esther looked. There were campfire remains, and that meant wood! Heading over to it, she carefully lit the firewood and watched the fire consume it for warmth. Popping and crackling like it should. Sitting down, she put her lighter away after closing the lid and watched the flames dance.

* * *

_I didn't even know his name, and yet there we were. Sitting near a campfire together. He complained about needing food, which I didn't have. I kind of wish I had more than just my lighter._

_My mind wandered back to the opening passage of the book I'd picked up._

_Whoever had put that message there clearly intended for me to end up here. I just didn't know who it was at the time._

_The boy passed out after laying there on the ground for a while. I couldn't blame him for that, even though it wasn't ideal to just... lay there. I remember reading something about how hard grounds were bad for you. While he was sleeping, he kind of groaned._

_I made sure to keep my eyes away from him. Watching someone sleep is bad, as I'd learned from reading multiple stories like that. So I only heard him shuffle when he finally woke up._

* * *

"Don't go out on me!" He exclaimed.

* * *

_I hadn't paid attention to the fire. That was my fault._

_I was busy, lost in my own thoughts. Thinking of how sad my mother probably was, and how my cat was probably prowling the house while meowing to get me to come out from hiding. Or sleeping on my pillow, waiting for me to come back._

_He told the fire to hold on, that he'd get it more wood. There wasn't any more. This was all there was in this place._

* * *

"Look out!"

Esther found herself tackled to the ground as something whizzed by her and landed with a loud thud. The teen got up off of her, and pulled out a sword. Where had he been keeping that? Scrambling to her feet, she looked from him to what had him tackling her down like that. A monster. A spindly-legged monster. Taking a deep breath, she walked beside him and cracked her knuckles before taking a martial arts fighting stance beside him.

"With your _bare fists?_ How?" The teen asked.

"I'm scared as all hell, but I can't just let you protect me. We'll fight together." Esther replied, not actually answering his question.

The teen charged first, attacking at the creature who used the too-wide swing to avoid the attack and reached up with two of its legs. Esther's boot met with one of the legs, and she felt it crack beneath her foot. It made a strange sound, but tried to attack the both of them with a pincer attack, which the two of them avoided.

"This is harder than those scaly things Auron and I were fighting!" The teen exclaimed, going in for another attack.

"Don't swing too wide! It'll anticipate it and dodge to attack like last time!" Esther said. The teen stopped and looked over, just as the monster came to attack again. She intercepted, feeling the sharp end poke into her boot's sole. Using that to her advantage, she shoved her foot forward then down, effectively breaking the monster's leg. At that moment, the doors nearby exploded and debris flew _everywhere_. The two of them dodged some incoming debris before it hit them, and Esther used that moment to pull the sharp bit out of her boot's sole. Men with guns and a bazooka-like weapon came in with a girl in a full-body suit for diving at their front. She adjusted her gloves and walked towards them before getting into a fighting stance herself.

"You're on our side? Cool!" The teen was excited. The new girl tossed a grenade, which exploded upon impact on the monster. It died almost instantly, releasing glowing multi-coloured lights into the sky. The teen thanked the girl, and she stared at them before taking off her goggles.

Her eyes were a bright green.

The men with her surrounded us once she glanced at them, and Esther heard the words they were saying.

* * *

_I didn't know it at the time, but the reason I could understand them was because I'd practiced Al Bhed back when I was younger. Trying to speak like them. It was easy to catch, even though it'd been so long since I'd ever used the language._

* * *

"What are these?" One of the men said, grabbing Esther by the arm. Another held up the sharp end of their gun to her neck. The same with Tidus, but by his hair instead with two others.

"Fiends! In human disguises!" Another said. Esther struggled, trying to get free but his grip was stronger than hers and tightened around her arm. She hated the feeling of this, of being captured like she was. They debated, with the girl in the diver suit saying that they might be human. At that, Esther jumped in almost immediately.

* * *

_I don't know what had caused me to interrupt. It'd been a long time since I'd spoken Al Bhed, and yet... Something just compelled me to._

* * *

"Wait, wait! We're human, we're human!" Esther said, the foreign tongue feeling awkward to say. Pale yellow eyes widened in fear. "Don't kill us, please!"

"It speaks our language?!" One of them asked in shock. She felt the knife get closer, under her chin and closest to her throat. As if ready to slit it and leave her to bleed out and die. "It's adapting! We should kill it!"

"If she speaks our language, then she could be useful. The other one, though..." The teen yelped in pain as his head was pulled back further. She had to act, and fast. Her pronunciation of the words was probably extremely off, but there was no other choice! The poor guy could die if they thought he was useless!

"We'll take them both with us." The girl said, interrupting Esther before she could even speak. She then had them let go of both Esther and the teen, and then she watched as the girl leaned in close and said one word to him.

"Sorry."

She punched him in the stomach, and he passed out. Esther immediately ran to his side, and put a hand on him while looking at the girl. At least his life had been spared...

For now.

* * *

_It wasn't like I'd wanted this in the first place. I still blame that passage to this day as to why I went through all that._

_I wish it was someone else sometimes, but then I wouldn't have learned anything._

_I would still be the same Esther than I am now._


	2. Besaid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She doesn't have a place, does she?

_**o2. Besaid** _

The ship they were on was a loader docked onto an Al Bhed machina. Esther stood by the railing, staring out into the sea. It was dark and cloudy, and the sea was a murky black colour to reflect this. The blond was still on the floor, out like a light. They'd called her a "captive" as well as him, but she seemed to be getting a better treatment somewhat due to her rusty Al Bhed.

The moment the teen had woken up, he was getting up when Esther saw him fall backward into the railing. A hiss escaped him, as if it had been painful. It probably _had_ been, in retrospect. Their capturers were telling them to sit and not move so, as not to get the same treatment, Esther sat nearby.

"You'd think they'd understand that I can't understand what they say." The teen said with a frown. "I don't get it. How do _you_ know what they're saying?"

"I don't really recall." Esther shook her head. "It's foggy, as if my memory's a bit clouded."

* * *

_A bold-faced lie, but he didn't know about Sin's Toxin yet. The hazy memories of my days playing through the game were starting to come back. We were at the 'beginning', it seemed. My knowledge of Al Bhed was... limited at the time. But I had communicated, at least._

* * *

"Huh..." He rubbed the back of his head as someone else came out with the girl who had punched the teen. Esther heard him tell the others to search them, and they did after making the two stand up. She swatted their hands away before they could touch anywhere she didn't want them to, and kind of stared at the mohawk-wearing man. He gave them both something, and Esther looked it over before looking back at the man.

His movements mimed diving and swimming.

He wanted them to dive and swim? Ah, right. Esther could vaguely remember there was something they wanted to excavate down there, but she couldn't remember exactly what it was. Regardless of it, she looked back at him and then to the girl. She heard the boy to her left question what was going on, and he got smacked for his insolence.

It was then that the girl spoke in words that both she and the teen could understand.

"He says you two can stay if you make yourselves useful." The girl said.

"You... can understand me?" As he asked that, one of the men whacked him while the other trained his gun on Esther, who glanced at it and then at the girl.

"All right! I'll work!" The teen said. He seemed to know what to do with the item they'd gotten from the mohawk man, so Esther just followed his lead. The two of them, plus the girl, dove into the water and started swimming downwards. She looked around as they swam, noting that the water was being converted to air with the small contraption that they had in their mouths. A strange occurrence, to be sure, but it was something she could get used to.

As they swam, the teen was able to get stuff working by hitting it properly while Esther and the girl watched. However, as they headed for the last room, they came under attack by a strange creature. Unable to fight underwater, Esther dodged the attacks as best as she could and had to hang back as the girl and the teen both fought the creature.

It dispersed, and the strange lights coming from it made Esther pause. There was a word for them, but she couldn't recall it well. She followed the two once the searchlights were turned on, and swam to where they needed to go. The lights pointed towards a large machine, covered in rocks. The girl pointed up, and the three of them swam back to the surface.

Once they boarded the ship again, the Al Bhed headed into the larger area. Esther stayed put while the teen had followed them and gotten shoved back. With him yelling about helping out, he walked over to where Esther was standing and flopped onto his back after sitting down. She chose to sit nearby, pulling her knees up to her chest once she removed the breather from her mouth and shoved it in her pocket.

"We've been working together for a bit, but I never did find out what your name was." The teen said, sitting up. Esther glanced over, yellow eyes glancing him over before she chuckled a little.

"Me? I'm Esther. What's your name?" She asked, a smile on her face.

"Tidus." Short, simple and to the point. Tidus rubbed the back of his neck and leaned forward a little. "So uh... can you teach me how to speak their language?"

"I can barely remember how I learned it, so it'd be difficult to teach it. Maybe you should ask a native, like that girl that we were helping out." _More like I stood by and they did all the work..._

"Riiight." He flopped back over. "I need food."

Almost as soon as he said that, the girl came back out with two trays of food, reminding Esther of the lunches she used to get at her school. They were set down in front of them, and Tidus started to wolf his down. Esther, on the other hand, ate a bit and found the texture to be revolting. Unable to stomach it, she shook her head and looked up at the girl.

"Thank you for your generosity, but I can't eat this. I'm sorry." She said, knowing the girl could understand her.

"It's alright, that's all we really have until we get back to Home." The girl waved a hand. Tidus looked from his now-empty tray to Esther's, and Esther shrugged before sliding it over to him. He started wolfing it down, but accidentally breathed in while doing so, causing some to become lodged and start choking him. The girl handed over a canteen, and he drank it to dislodge the food. Esther suppressed a chuckle. This was what happened when you ate too fast, which the girl also vocalized.

"That's what happens when you eat too fast."

Tidus stood up, and looked her over curiously.

"Hello there. What is your name?" He was unsure he was actually understanding her, that she could actually speak something he could understand. Esther didn't know if she should call it English or something else, but she could communicate just fine with all of them...

"Rikku."

"You do understand!" Tidus was like a kid in a candy shop, jumping around. "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"I didn't get a chance to! Everyone thought oui dfu were fiends." She shrugged a little.

Oui dfu... Esther snorted a little. "I guess they went easy on me because I was a girl."

"Wait wait wait- We defu? What does that mean?" Tidus looked confused.

"Oh. Oui dfu means 'you two.'" Rikku explained.

Esther left them to their conversation, going to look over at the sea. It was still dark, so not a lot of time had passed. She was concerned they wouldn't be able to leave, and that was when Tidus walked over to kick the railing. The ship started to shake, and Esther lost her balance. Falling on her butt, she saw the three Al Bhed run out and stood back up to look over.

Sin.

Sin was here.

As they were about to reach the two, another shake of the ship caused both Esther and Tidus to fall overboard, and the two of them saw Rikku lean over as if trying to grab their hands while the mohawk man started to pull her back.

And then everything went black.

* * *

Esther woke with a start, coughing and sputtering as she lifted her head out of the water. She was soaked, but she couldn't complain. As Tidus woke, something smacked him in the back of the head and he looked extremely excited.

"Blitzball!" He held the ball with both hands, and Esther looked behind them.

" _Hey! You two okay?!_ " There were people on the beach, waving and calling towards them. Tidus yelled back and Esther started to swim towards them before she heard the splash of someone leaving the water. Looking over, she noticed how Tidus was rising above the water and then _kicked_ the blitzball before landing back in the water with a splash. Covering her face, futile due to already being soaked from being in the ocean, Esther decided to continue to head towards the shore. Knowing she was going to be overlooked due to Tidus, she didn't make an effort to converse with them.

She couldn't play Blitzball, and they could.

As the people surrounded Tidus, Esther stood there off to the side and just watched the clouds in the sky. When they were on the ship, it was dark as night... but here, it was sunny with some clouds in the sky. That meant that either it was night, or there was just a strange phenomena over the area they had been in.

"It wasn't just me affected though." Tidus' words broke through her thoughts, and she looked over as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her over with little protest. "She was with me the entire time, and also got too close to Sin.."

"Hi..." Esther gave a small wave.

"Both of you..." The person who spoke was a redhead, and his hair was in a long spiky curl that spiked straight up while the rest was shorter... but still spiked. Esther was confused on how that was even possible but... Tidus' hair stayed the same no matter if wet or dry so it must've been a normal thing. "But you're both still alive! Praise be to Yevon."

Esther gave a small, nervous laugh and rubbed her wrist, grateful that Tidus hadn't squeezed too hard. "I-I guess. A-anyway, what's your name?" Trying to stay positive was turning out to be more difficult than she imagined, knowing that Blitzball was something that was more likely to garner attention than a girl from another world.

"I'm Wakka. Captain and Coach of the Besaid Aurochs." The redhead said, proudly.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Esther, and this is Tidus." Esther held out her hand for a handshake, and Wakka shook it. Tidus, on the other hand, put a hand to his stomach. At that, Esther kind of laughed and patted his back. "He's a little hungry. Do you have anything to eat?"

"Back at the village!" Wakka said. "Let's go get you somethin'."

* * *

_I wasn't too content on being in the background, but I knew, from my foggy memories, that Tidus was the main character. Things would, more or less, go as they had. I would be left in the shadows, forgotten unless convenient. Unless I found a way to insert myself into everything._

_At that time, I didn't know what to do. I wasn't a Blitzball player, I was just a girl from another world who could use martial arts. That wasn't exciting. I had to think of something.._

_But I wouldn't figure it out until later._

_And when I did, I would embroil myself in their journey. In Tidus' story, as a main character._


End file.
